Frau Merkel Continues Her "I'm Unpopular With All Humans" European Tour..

After Starting Riots In Greece, Merkel Booed In Germany Next.  If Merkel had a heart (or soul, for that matter..), she might be upset.  No worries there, though!  Zero Hedge.  Excerpts:


What does an iron chancellor have to do to be loved these days? After scrambling 7,000 members of the Greek police force out of an early prepaid retirement for her brief, still inexplicable 6 hour visit to Athens last Tuesday, which caused the now usual Syntagma square rioting, Merkel next took the stage in a rainy Stuttgart, in a show of support for the local mayor candidate Sebastian Turner, which promptly devolved into 14 minutes of continuous booing.  (Video at the link.  It's awesome if you like your videos full of boos.  Boo!  Boo!  Chant!  Priceless..  )
And:
The truth is that a vast majority of Europe's people now want the grand experiment, which merely enriches a small subset of participants while impoverishing everyone else, over and done with: it is this endless pursuit of power and money at all costs that starts wars - not whether Germany and France share a fake currency, that is the cause of the endless bloodshed in Europe. The only reason why wars not only in Europe, but in the world, were avoided for the past several decades, is due to the incursion of globalization which merely allowed the encumbrance of every global assets with layers upon layers of additional debt, creating money in the process and keeping the oligarchy happy. But it is this oligarchic 'subset' that calls the shots, and the same subset is now realizing the ability to create debt out of thin air in Europe has now ended. And it will gladly take Europe to the edge of war if it means, well, "avoiding war", at least in the Nobel committee's naive version of the world, in the future.


Frau Frau needs a diversion:  Where the hell is Techno Viking when you need him?

Savile had set of Broadmoor keys: As scandal grows, how sick star had access to mentally ill patients

The tip of the goddamned ghastly iceberg that will be revealed to be institutionalized pedophilia within the halls of the BBC, but more importantly, connecting outward to other locales..  How low will the scandal go, and how big will it grow?  The Daily Mail(Entire article, plus video and more background at the link):

Jimmy Savile was given his own keys to high-security Broadmoor mental hospital, it emerged yesterday.


The gold-plated set was presented to the predatory paedophile as a reward for his volunteering, and gave him access to mentally ill patients, it was claimed.

The extraordinary revelation came as NHS chiefs came under mounting pressure to start an inquiry into Savile’s freedom to sexually abuse child patients.

He was given bedrooms or an office at three hospitals, and yesterday more former patients came forward to say he abused them on children’s wards.


There are growing fears NHS bosses turned a blind eye to sick and disabled children being attacked by Savile because he raised so much money for them.

Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire – where nurses warned children to ‘pretend to be asleep’ when the Jim’ll Fix It star came calling – made £40million from his fundraising.


The TV entertainer volunteered as a porter to gain access to children recovering from cancer and brain surgery, and sexually assault them. He said hospital chiefs ‘realised I might be useful to them’ and boasted he was ‘untouchable’.

A former Stoke Mandeville nurse yesterday claimed managers were ‘well aware’ that Savile – given a bedroom at the hospital for two decades – was a child abuser. Holly, from Dover, told LBC radio: ‘Jimmy Savile molested one of the patients on the paediatric unit. He was not supposed to go on any children’s wards unaccompanied.


‘Stoke Mandeville were well aware of what was going on. For them to say now they knew nothing is complete lies. They knew. It makes me so angry. He raised all this money for them. There has been a massive cover-up.’
The National Association for People Abused in Childhood said it had been ‘inundated’ with calls about Savile. Chief executive Pete Saunders said: ‘Two this morning told us that not only did Jimmy Savile abuse them at Stoke Mandeville but a doctor did as well.’

Labour leader Ed Miliband called for every institution connected to Savile to hold a ‘far-reaching investigation’ into ‘who knew what when about what was happening and why nothing was done about it’.


Tory MP Rob Wilson, an aide to the Health Secretary, demanded an independent inquiry into the scandal at Stoke Mandeville.


Mr Wilson said: ‘It is being alleged that his money-raising made him untouchable, despite the information that circulated about his behaviour. It must be a priority that the hospital answers these concerns as soon as possible before huge damage is done to its reputation.’

He added: ‘I am astonished to learn Savile had keys to Broadmoor, one of the highest security hospitals in the country. From what we’ve learned he should have been locked inside the institution, not been given the keys.’

One Broadmoor victim claimed the Top Of The Pops presenter put his hand up her nightdress when she was 17 after walking in on a group of girls watching TV in 1969.

Alison Pink said: ‘I felt absolutely disgusting afterwards, like I had been used as a piece of meat for his sexual gratification.’

She said Savile kept his own mobile home in the grounds of the Berkshire hospital, where patients include Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe.


‘He definitely had his own keys – they were gold, especially for him. Both male and female patients thought it was very strange. He could access any of the girls’ bedrooms.’


Alison, who has since had a sex change and is now Steven George, 60, of Portsmouth, added: ‘He made very good friends with patients on the male ward, which was full of sex offenders.’
Broadmoor hospital did not deny Savile had been given keys, but said the allegations related to a time when it was run as a ‘separate, somewhat isolated’ organisation. (What the fuck?)A spokesman said volunteer access and activity at Broadmoor was now strictly controlled and the hospital operated ‘within strict child and adult safeguarding guidelines’.

Meanwhile, psychiatric nurse Naomi Stanley told the Guardian that a patient told her she had been frequently abused by the star while she was in hospital in the 1980s.

She said the young woman said Savile had raped her repeatedly near the stage of the theatre at the hospital and that Savile had claimed 'nobody would believe her and he could do what he liked' when she threatened to report him.

The woman told the nurse Savile was 'very forceful' and 'treated her like she was an animal', and the nurse was left with no doubt the woman was extremely distressed by the alleged attacks.

Leeds General Infirmary, where Savile raised also millions of pounds and was given his own office, has declared ‘shock’ at claims he groped vulnerable children recovering from surgery while volunteering as a porter. Two more victims came forward there yesterday.

Thirteen police forces have now taken statements from people claiming they were raped or molested when they were children by the late BBC presenter, who died last October aged 84.

Scotland Yard has branded Savile a ‘predatory sex offender’ who preyed on children as young as 13 for four decades in a nationwide campaign of abuse.

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, which is responsible for Stoke Mandeville, said it was supporting the police inquiries and would take further action ‘if their findings suggest that we do need to’. It also said it had advised staff to contact police if they had any concerns.

West London Mental Health Trust, which covers Broadmoor, said it had not received any allegations of abuse from patients, their representatives or from staff, but would co-operate with police if they investigated.

In retrospect, this is one of the creepiest photos I've ever seen.  Do you think Frank Bruno wondered why a BBC television star just happened to be hanging out with a serial killer at the time of his visit?  Look at Saville's face:  Now that's a chilling expression..

More background here:  Jimmy Savile sex abuse claims: BBC to launch inquiries, From BBC News itself:

The BBC is to launch two inquiries surrounding sex abuse claims made against Sir Jimmy Savile, director general George Entwistle has announced.

The first into why a BBC Newsnight investigation into Savile was shelved last year will start straight away.

The other into whether culture and practice at the BBC at the time enabled Savile to carry out the sexual abuse of children will wait for police go-ahead.

Police said they had now received 340 potential lines of inquiry.

How could they have not known?  Oh, they knew; They just didn't care..

The Sun newspaper said that David Nicolson caught Savile having sex with a young girl in a BBC dressing room.


Mr Nicolson, now 67, is reported to have told managers at the BBC about the alleged incident, but was told: "That's the way it goes."

A BBC spokeswoman said: "We have been disturbed to hear these allegations. All staff past and present who have any information relating to allegations of this kind should raise them with the BBC's internal investigations unit or with the police directly."

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said he could not understand how [the alleged abuse] had "remained hidden for so long".
"There must have been just so many people who knew what was going on in hospitals, the BBC, maybe in the police," he told BBC Radio 5live.

This scandal has not even begun: This could be the beginning of the biggest sexual scandal we've seen in our lifetime. My guess is that its tentacles will extend across borders to other very powerful institutions. The shock has just begun, babies, and this scandal will be every bit as big as it is sick.
By the way, this is a huuuuuge webbot hit, also.. (Oct.10-quirky--Free download. The first 10 minutes..)

Syrian plane had illegal cargo, says Turkey's Davutoglu

Turkey ups the ante.  Again.  BBC News.  Excerpts:

Turkey has said a Syria-bound passenger plane which it forced to land in Ankara was carrying "illegal cargo".


The Syrian Air plane was intercepted by Turkey and searched over suspicions it was carrying military equipment.

But officials in Russia and Syria strongly denied the allegations and accused the Turkish authorities of endangering passengers and crew.

Tension between Turkey and Syria has been high since five Turkish civilians were killed last week by mortar bombs.

In response, Turkey fired into Syria for the first time since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began last year.

'Air piracy'

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said "objectionable" cargo had been confiscated from the plane.

"There is illegal cargo on the plane that should have been reported," he told the Anatolia news agency.

He did not specify whether any weapons had been found, but unconfirmed reports in Turkish media said the seized items included boxes of military communication equipment.


The foreign minister said Turkey, which imposed an arms embargo on Syria last year, would continue to investigate Syrian passenger planes flying over its air space.

Both Syria and Russia reacted angrily to the plane's enforced diversion.

Syrian Transport Minister Mahmoud Saeed accused Turkey of carrying out "air piracy" and breaking civil aviation agreements, according to Lebanon's al-Manar TV.

Gaida Abdul Latif, boss of Syrian Air, accused Turkey of endangering her passengers and crew.

"Turkish military aircraft forced the plane to land without giving prior warning to the pilot. The military aircraft were so close that there could have been an accident," she said.

'Spare parts'

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Turkish officials had failed to inform the embassy that 17 Russian citizens were on board the plane.

"We are concerned that, in this emergency situation, the lives and safety of the passengers, including 17 Russian nationals, were put at risk," he said.
Russia's state arms supplier Rosoboronexport said in a statement it had no information about the plane's cargo, and denied it had any connection with the flight or anything on board.

Earlier, Mr Davutoglu had said Ankara was determined to stop any transfer of weapons to Syria through its airspace.

He said Ankara had received information that the Damascus-bound plane could be carrying "non-civilian cargo".

The Airbus A320 airliner had about 30 passengers on board, far fewer than its 180 passenger capacity.

The aircraft was escorted by two Turkish fighters to the capital's Esenboga airport for security checks.

Turkey and Syria on the brink of all-out war

Tick..  Tick..  Tick..  The Telegraph, via The Extinction Protocol:

October 11, 2012 – TURKEY - If anyone believed that Syria’s bloodshed would stay inside the country’s borders, the events of the last week should have put them right. I’m in southern Turkey, near the frontier with Syria, and this area feels like the new front line of the battle against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Convoys of Turkish army vehicles ply the roads down to the border and, quietly, civilians are trickling away to safer areas. The reason is simple: cross-border artillery and mortar bombardments have become daily events. Last Friday, I went to the scene of the bloodiest incident so far, when a Syrian mortar bomb landed outside a family home in the Turkish town of Akçakale. By malign chance, a mother, her six daughters and a female relative happened to be outside, making dinner under an olive tree, when the weapon exploded beside them. They were, quite simply, cut to pieces. When I arrived, a severed human finger, covered in flies, was still lying on the ground. Three of the girls survived with critical injuries; the mother, three daughters and the visiting relative were all killed. Since then, hardly a day has passed without the Syrian army firing shells or bombs into Turkey, or vice versa. If another family dies in similar circumstances, the Turkish government will come under immense popular pressure to respond with full force. If the Akçakale killings were to be repeated, I would not be surprised if Turkey retaliated with a strike by troops as well as artillery, possibly accompanied with air power. The country’s parliament has authorised the government to do exactly that if necessary. In other words, Turkey and Syria are close to war. The two countries have been waging a covert, undeclared war since the onset of the uprising against Assad, with Turkey supplying the Syrian rebels and Damascus hitting back by fuelling the Kurdish insurgency inside its neighbor. But we could be close to the moment when this shadow war becomes a formal, cross-border conflict. The lesson is clear: a civil war in volatile region is like a brushfire. Leave it alone, and it will spread. –Telegraph


While the media has chosen to ignore this story, the bad blood between Turkey and Syria continues to grow.  Any bets on which country will stick their ass into the action next?

NEW 4-Mile Long Oil Slick Near BP’s Gulf Oil Well

BP’s Macondo Well May Leak for Years.  Washington's Blog.  Excerpts:

From CNN:

An oil sheen about four miles long has appeared in the Gulf of Mexico near the site of the worst oil spill in U.S. history, a Coast Guard spokesman said Thursday.


It was not immediately clear where the oil is coming from, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Tippets. [Although previous oil has been matched as a "dead ringer" to the BP well.]

Coast Guardsmen went to the location after seeing the oil on a satellite image, Tippets said. The response team collected samples and sent them to the Coast Guard Marine Safety Lab in Connecticut for testing.
***
The sheen is near the spot where, on April 20, 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded over the Macondo well, killing 11 workers and spewing oil that spread across a huge portion of the Gulf.

This is interesting, and a little disturbing to boot.. 
(Interview by Washington's Blog with Dr. Robert Bea, a member of the Deepwater Horizon Study Group.)

WB: I have heard that BP is underestimating the size of the oil reservoir. Is it possible that the reservoir is bigger than BP is estimating, and so – if not completely killed – the leak could therefore go on for longer than most assume?


Bea: That’s plausible.

WB: The chief electronics technician on the Deepwater Horizon said that the Macondo well was originally drilled in another location, but that “going faster caused the bottom of the well to split open, swallowing tools”, and that BP abandoned that well. You’ve spoken to that technician and looked into the incident, and concluded that “they damn near blew up the rig.”

Do you know where that abandoned well location is, and do you know if that well is still leaking?

Bea: The abandoned well is very close to the current well location. BP had to file reports showing the location of the abandoned well and the new well [with the Minerals Management Service], so the location of the abandoned well is known.

We don’t know if the abandoned well is leaking.

WB: Matthew Simmons talked about a second leaking well. There are rumors on the Internet that the original well is still leaking. Do you have any information that can either disprove or confirm that allegation?

Bea: There are two uncorroborated reports. One is that there is a leak 400 feet West of the present well’s surface location. There is another report that there is a leak several miles to the West.

[Bea does not know whether either report is true at this time, because BP is not sharing information with the government, let alone the public.]

Random, unacknowledged oil leaks for decades to come?  Who said environmental disasters can't be fun? 

The New Titan of Tbilisi

Georgia has a new Prime Minister.  Plus side?  He's not known to eat ties.  Minus side?  He's an uber-rich, bat shit loon.  Good luck, Georgia!  Foreign Policy.  Excerpts:

TBILISI, Georgia — Beyond his zebra-rearing, art-collecting eccentricities, we don't know all that much about Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose Georgian Dream coalition won a shock victory in Monday's parliamentary elections here. But after his victory news conference, we do know one thing for sure: He's no orator.
In a long meeting with the media in a sweaty room at Georgian Dream headquarters on Tuesday, Oct. 2, Ivanishvili rambled, repeated himself, appeared to make up policy on the spot, and accused a reporter from a major international news agency of being a stooge for his opponent, President Mikheil Saakashvili. He was also oblivious of the fact that Georgian law requires Saakashvili, as president, to approve the prime minister's nomination, at least until the Georgian Constitution changes next year. Initially, he argued forcefully with journalists that this was incorrect, before later conceding the point.

It was an unnerving performance that might give people some cause to wonder just who the man is who has benefited from the wave of popular fury against Saakashvili's reforming but authoritarian rule, and what kind of government he might go on to lead.

Much of the vitriolic election campaign that took place here over the past few months focused on the flaws or benefits of Saakashvili, the hero of the 2003 Rose Revolution. His eccentric opponent was something of a side attraction. Now that Ivanishvili's coalition is going to dominate Parliament, however, the spotlight falls on the oligarch, who lived in complete hermitdom prior to his entry into politics.

Until last year, few people even knew what he looked like. He had given just one interview, to the Russian newspaper Vedomosti, back in 2005, and he shunned all publicity and public events. He moved as stealthily as a cat whenever he left the safety of his contemporary castle of glass on a hill overlooking Tbilisi, disbursing his philanthropic donations to Georgian artists and intellectuals quietly and anonymously.

After he announced in October 2011 that he was the man to challenge Saakashvili, he had to make a quick adjustment to the world of media appearances and interviews. A gift to the profile writer, Ivanishvili often seems like he has wandered straight off the pages of a Gary Shteyngart novel. (I'm not familiar with his work, so I provided a link for others as uninformed as I..)His political rallies have featured performances by his albino son, who is a rapper. When I interviewed him two months ago, at his Black Sea estate, he arrived driving a red golf buggy, playing "My Way" on the stereo and offering an impromptu tour of his exotic-pet collection before we sat down to chat("Good God, Lemon..").
And:
His sense of political timing also leaves something to be desired. In his rambling introduction he made the same point four times and spoke at length about how he would prosecute a single judge who had been responsible for what he called unlawful verdicts against the opposition. He stated that if Saakashvili could work with the opposition, then a cooperative relationship could be achieved. Nearly two hours into the news conference, however, Ivanishvili suddenly dropped a bombshell, demanding that Saakashvili resign, instead of seeing out the final year of his presidency. "The only right thing for him to do now is to take his pen and resign," Ivanishvili said. "This would be good for himself and for his future." Ivanishvili appeared to have had the thought on the spot, and the statement immediately caused alarm among the international community, especially after Saakashvili's surprisingly magnanimous concession speech. "This call is totally unacceptable and is a direct attack against democracy and the rule of law," said a statement from Wilfried Martens, president of the European People's Party, which is affiliated with Saakashvili's United National Movement. It was only on the thorny issue of relations with Russia that Ivanishvili sounded assured, insisting that he would seek to bolster trade and cultural ties with Georgia's overbearing northern neighbor, but at the same time vowing not to err at all from Saakashvili's course of NATO and EU integration.


The general consensus at the moment is that this election campaign, despite being spiteful and vitriolic, has ended up as a tremendous advertisement for Georgian democracy. There are not many countries in this region where a powerful sitting president could be so undermined at the ballot box. But Georgian politics, after all, has a long history of enthusiastic celebration of a messiah figure before a swift process of disillusionment kicks in. Recently, we have been inundated with headlines and op-eds referencing pruned or wilted roses (the most recent: "Petals Drop Off the Rose Revolution").

The test for Ivanishvili will be keeping his newly victorious coalition -- which ranges from liberals to ultranationalists -- together, now that they are no longer fighting a common enemy. How soon before we see the first "Georgian Dream Turns to Nightmare" headline? Not long, unless Ivanishvili develops a new set of political skills quickly.

And you thought Bachmann, Akin, and Brewer were the craziest show in town..  I've got to find some YouTube clips of his kid performing!  Found 'em!  Scroll down, please!

Still think the Mayans were crazy and/or wrong?  2012:  The year Crazy became Beautiful.

Out with the old!

In with the new!